Number of Jews dropping, Israeli agency warns

The number of Jews in the world is declining at an average of 50,000 per year, according to a survey published by the Jewish Agency, Israel's semi-governmental body in charge of Jewish immigration.

There are 12.9 million Jews in the world, the survey said, noting that the decline was sharpest in the United States where the figure dropped by 300,000 over the last decade to its current level of 5.2 million.

The massive decrease in the Jewish population of the former USSR - from 1.45 million in 1989 to 437,000 in 2002 - is accounted for by the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel.

Mainly for the same reasons, France's Jewish community declined from 535,000 in 1988 to 500,000 today.

Israel, the only country with a growing Jewish community, is home to 5.4 million Jews or close relatives of Jews, the report said.");document.write("

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The demographic decline is chiefly the result of low birth rates and a high proportion of mixed marriages.

The state of Israel defines as Jew anyone with a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism by rabbinate.